Pages

Merry Meet and Welcome!

We hope that you will find our content to be uplifting and educational. Please keep in mind that this is not a space for debate or criticism but rather a place for respect, curiosity and learning.

You are encouraged to take what you can from what we share here. If you want to know more, do not look to the contributors of this blog to teach anything beyond what we post. Seek out what feels right for you, trust the Spirit to guide you and have faith in our heavenly parents who are the givers of all pure knowledge.

Lunar Observances

Lunar Esbats are rituals or observances relating to the lunar cycles. (The term "Esbat" is also sometimes used to refer to any non-Sabbat gathering or ritual.) One may observe the full moon, or the new moon, or any other part of the cycle. Our posts about our lunar observances can be found here or by clicking the moon image on the sidebar.

With our cities lit up by electric lights...most of us are distracted from what is happening in the night sky. Our ancestors, however, watched the rhythm of the heavenly bodies with great interest.Each night marks a subtle but discernible change in the shape of the moon. Sometimes the moon is not visible at all. And then it seems to magically reappear, as a slender crescent, getting bigger and bigger each night until finally it is a complete sphere of light. And then it begins to shrink until once again it disappears. This cycle, from new moon to new moon, is called a lunation. Lunations vary somewhat in length, but average twenty-nine and a half days. We now know that a lunation is the period of time it takes for the moon to orbit the Earth. We have evidence that humans kept track of lunar cycles as early as 25,000 BC. Lunar calendars were probably the first calendars developed throughout the world, underscoring how intimately the moon is connected to our concepts of time and measurement. Our ancestors connected the cyclical rhythm of the waxing and waning of the moon to the changes in seasons of the world around them. Ancient and traditional cultures often developed evocative names for the different lunations that corresponded to the seasons, and to the natural phenomena that nature replayed in their environment year after year.--excerpt from Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice

Different cultures used different names of course, but a few names show up across many cultures. Interestingly, these common names tend to coincide with parts of the wheel of the year. Here are a few of those names, you might consider coming up with names that are significant to you throughout the year.

A full moon in January (between Yule and Imbolc) is the Hunger Moon or Purification Moon.

A full moon in early spring (around Ostara/Equinox) may be called the Egg Moon or Seed Moon.

A full moon in late summer (near Lammas and grain harvest) may be the Corn Moon.

The full moon in early fall (near Mabon/Equinox and vegetable harvest) is the Harvest Moon.

The full moon in late fall (near Samhain) is the Hunters Moon or Blood Moon.